To survive in the dark
by Medea678
Summary: There things to be afraid of in the dark. Vanitas knew this. And he now knew he could fight these things. So he only had one desire now: to destroy all of them. AU. Eventual VanVen. Rated T for violence and language.
1. Shadows in the mall

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the things used in this fic.**

**Summary: There things to be afraid of in the dark. Vanitas knew this. And he now knew he could fight these things. So he only had one desire now: to destroy all of them. AU. Eventual VanVen. Other pairings: mostly Seiner and Teraqua. Rate T for violence and language.**

* * *

_The city was covered in shadows._

_People run from them, but they couldn't escape. One by one, they were engulfed by the darkness._

_Soon everything was dark. Everything, but one point._

_One point of white light, which keep glowing among the darkness._

* * *

Suddenly there was a bump and the back of his head hit something. When he opened his eyes, he remembered he was in a train. _"That dream again."_ thought Vanitas as he rubbed his head. As he watched the buildings, he knew he hadn't reached his stop yet. He snored and stretched himself, causing the lady next to him to give him a look of disgust. _"Like I care."_

"Next stop: Mall center Epopt. We repeat. Next stop: Mall center Epopt." announced the voice of the speakers. Vanitas got up and went to the doors. The train started to slow down until it finally stopped. Then, the doors opened themselves.

As he stepped out, Vanitas was greeted by a freezing wind. Troia was never really hot, but winters could be really fucking cold. He put his hands on the pockets of his jacket and hurried his phase to get quickly inside the mall. But, just as he reached the door, a great pack of people decided to get out, almost knocking him down. Vanitas had to push his way through to get inside, owning a few pokes and not so few curses. _"This is why I hate these places."_

The mall was full, as you would expect being Christmas time. The shops were full with people; the air full of smoke from cigarettes and the screams of little children to their parents in front of the toy stores filled the place. Not to mention the trash that was everywhere, except in the garbage cans. The only clean part of the mall was the fountain in front of which there were many benches were people sat, trying to regain energy from their shopping.

So now came the real problem: What to buy? He had to get something to his younger brother Sora and his uncle Squall. He could get almost anything to Squall and would be okay. But with Sora… he wasn't the real problem, but Vanitas knew that his uncle would kill him if he didn't give something nice to him. When it came to his ten-year old nephew, Squall wouldn't take any of Vanitas shit.

As he was thinking this, he saw something in a showcase. It was a chain with a metal crown shaped pendant. He remembered that Sora had been going on and on about how he would look cool with a chain necklace. _"He won't. But, at least he'll have something new to try to impress Kairi." _This will mean less time for him to pester Vanitas. Plus, it was on sale. How could he say no?

So, he got that for Sora and even a kitchen knife for Squall. Everything had been quicker than he thought, so he decided to sit on a bench for a bit. Looking at the fountain in front of him was not really that interesting, so he decided to look bit around from there. There was a couple cuddling another bench. On the other side of the fountain, a woman was slapping a guy in the face before taking a ring off and threw it into the water. Another woman sat on a bench, talking on the phone, while her daughter was playing with her doll in the fountain. An old lady sat in the edge of the fountain in front of him and gave him an angry look. She probably thought that he ought to leave the bench for her, but he didn't care right now.

All his body felt sore after working doing deliveries for Cid on his motorcycle. Squall had told him when he finished high school that if he didn't knew what to study, he should at least find a job. So when Vanitas had said that he planned on doing that, Squall had dragged him to Cid's workshop the day after he graduated. Although Vanitas had his issues with his uncle not giving him the chance to look for a work himself, he really couldn't complain. The pay was not bad; the job of driving around was entertaining and Cid was cool when he wasn't drunk or bitching about how people mistreated the things they brought him. But being seated on a bike for half the year, he couldn't help but feeling tired. He was really tired, but he couldn't sleep. Not if it meant dreaming that again.

He used to dream about them when he was a child. The Heartless, those monsters that lived outside Troia's walls and lived only to attack humans and turn them into more heartless. Troia was considered the frontier between them and mankind. No safe land was beyond the barrier that protected Troia and the other human cities. It was no wonder why everyone hated and feared those things, but why did he had those dreams about them? They had stopped during his teens, but, lately, they came whenever he closed his eyes. So he slept little and yes, he was very pissed off by it. He was starting to see them even now. He saw them as he saw a little shadow, moving as if it was a bug, crawling through the floor, unnoticed by everybody. He saw as the shadow reached the fountain, putting itself behind the little girl playing with her doll. But, then the shadow started to rise from the floor and started to take shape and he, now, knew he was not fucking dreaming.

"Watch out! Heartless!" he yelled at the top of his lungs pointing towards it. For a moment, everyone was quiet. All was in absolute silence. And then the creature jump over the girl. And then someone screamed. And then everyone was screaming. And running. And then other heartless started to pop out of the floor. And there was more screaming and more running.

Vanitas couldn't comprehend what was happening. He suddenly remembered he was supposed to run too. But, when he turned to the exit, he saw that it had been closed off. There were still a lot of people hanging to it, punching it and begging for it to open. _"Probably the guards shut it off after they got their asses out of here."_ He then turned to the heartless, which were now slowly approaching him.

"You piss me off in my dreams and now you piss me off here." He said as he took out the kitchen knife he had brought for Squall. He also stuffed the little box with the chain for Sora in his pocket. "You want me? Then, come at me!"

He threw himself at the first one and cut it down before it could react. Squall had taught him how to use a sword and while the knife wasn't the same thing, it still helped. The second one tried to jump at him, but he cut it in midair. He continued like that with four more, until one grabbed his leg and threw its claws at him. Only to be smashed by a baseball bat.

"Hey, you okay, man?" said the guy with the baseball bat.

"Yeah. Thanks." said Vanitas.

"That's my line. If you hadn't started fighting first, I think no one would have." said the guy. Vanitas then looked around and saw other people using what they could to fight off the little demons. _"Guess they got tired of smashing the doors."_

"No time to talk, there's some butt to kick. And give me that." said Vanitas taking the bat from the guy and started to hit heartless with it. It was definitely much like a sword than the knife. He could smash the little things as if they were some kind of game in the arcade. It didn't always work as sometimes they dissolved in the floor, but it certainly felt good to break their little skulls (if they had any) against the ground.

The heartless were starting to fall back and this only got everyone more pump up. As they started to chase them towards the center of the mall, Vanitas got a strange feeling and stopped to look at them. _"They are not really falling back." _he thought. And then, suddenly, a much larger shadow started to come out of the floor and only grew larger as the tiny ones seemed to merge with it. A giant was now standing before him. And now all the humans were dropping their weapons and running back to the closed exit. The few that still ran towards him were quickly defeated, as the giant just stepped on them.

The giant then focused his bright yellow eyes on Vanitas, who only then started running. The monster extended his hand to reach him, but, when he couldn't, he punched the ground. The impact sent Vanitas flying and he collided with a wall. He felt like he was losing consciousness. He touched his forehead with his hand and saw that he was bleeding. The giant then started to extend his hand towards him.

"_Am I going to die now?"_

But before his hand reached him, it was hit by a great fireball. Then suddenly it was cut off and fell to the ground. There was now a blond man with a black uniform and a huge sword in front of him.

"Hey, Ventus! Take a look at the kid here, while I and chickenwuss go to handle this guy." he said to someone Vanitas didn't see, although considering he wasn't moving his head it was no wonder.

"I told you not to call me that, you jerk!" said another voice. The blond man was joined by a blond kid with the same uniform who had a hair more strange than him. _"Did he put his hair in a vacuum or something?"_

As he was thinking this, he got startled when he saw a pair of big blue eyes starting closely at him. The eyes then got farther from him and he saw that they were part of the face of yet another blond with spiky hair. The blond then put his hand over Vanitas's forehead and suddenly it started to glow. Vanitas felt a stinging yet soothing sensation flowing through his body. When the hand of the blond left his forehead, Vanitas touched it to find out that it wasn't bleeding anymore.

"There you go!" said the blond guy. "I'm Ventus from HEART. Don't worry; we got the situation under control now."

Vanitas looked around to see that there were no longer people in the mall. Only he, the three blonds, the giant heartless and some of the little ones remained there. He saw that the other two blonds were evading the giant's attacks, while destroying the little heartless that apparently fell from his wounds. The man cut them off (sometimes, several at once) with his sword, whereas the kid either punch them with his knuckles or shoot them something like a fireball or a thunderbolt at them. He however noticed that some of the little ones had slip past them and were approaching him and Ventus. He tried to get up and reached for the baseball bat that was in front of him, but Ventus put a hand in his chest to stop him.

"You're in no condition to fight. They won't hurt us anyway. I put a barrier around us." just as he said this, a heartless jumped at them and crashed with something invisible before disappearing. "You see? I assure you that Seifer and Hayner will take care of everything."

But Vanitas couldn't help but feeling angry at this. These monsters had hunted his dreams since he was a child and today he had the chance to get a payback at them. And he had done well. Up until the giant showed up, he had cleaned the floor with those things. And now he was being saved by a bunch of magic users. He was helpless against them. He hated being helpless. He wanted to fight them. To make them pay for all the years he had been tormented by them. He wanted to be the one who crashed them.

Then a strange large circle appeared in the floor of the mall. Suddenly, everyone was looking at it. The little heartless, the giant, the two blonds and even Ventus had now turned their attention at it. Vanitas looked at the circle. It had a lot of strange symbols and letters he didn't understand. And then, all of a sudden, a harpoon attached to a chain fell inside as if the floor was now water. Then, it started to pull up and brought something with it. It looked like some sort of deformed monster putted in chains and trapped in some kind of strange plant. His head was covered in bandages expect for his mouth full of fangs and one eye that seemed to cry blood. The monster was almost as tall as the giant and shrilled so loud that the windows of the shops started to break. Even the giant heartless looked afraid of him.

Vanitas just looked at him without fear. He couldn't explain why looking at that creature could make him feel peace out of all the possible emotions. Peace and some strange excitement.

"Anima…" he said in a calm tone. "Destroy him."

Anima, as he called him, shrilled again and, around his eye, some kind of light started to gather. The giant then threw himself towards him, but a ray came from Anima's eye, blowing his head off. Vanitas stared at the giant's body, as it started to go numb, and started to laugh. He didn't know why. He just felt as if a rush of ecstasy had went all through his veins at once. As the giant's body went to his knees, Anima shot him again, this time blowing off an arm. And then again, blowing the other. And it just seemed to continue shooting towards it. As it continue, Vanitas laughter started to turn more and more hysterical and he no longer seemed to know what was going on around him. He could no longer see or hear anything.

And then someone slap him.

"Snap out of it!" a voice screamed at him.

As he ignored the pain in his cheek, he turned his head to see Ventus looking at him with a desperate look on his eyes.

"What's your problem, asshole?" he told the blond beside him.

"My problem?! I'm not the one who was laughing like a psycho a second ago!" he yelled at him. Then he sighed and seemed to calm down a bit. "Look, I just need you to call your esper off. He's out of control!"

Vanitas simply looked at him with a tired expression. _"An esper?"_ He then looked at Anima, who kept shooting that eye-beam thing at the same spot, even though the giant heartless was gone. He then looked back at the blond and pointed to Anima.

"Yes! That thing! Are you dumb?" he continued to yell.

"Well, excuse me, but I don't know what that fucking thing is! Nor how to call it off!" Vanitas yelled back.

Ventus then face palmed himself and Vanitas was about to give another piece of his mind. But the blond suddenly started at him with his deep blue eyes, leaving Vanitas paralyzed. He then put one hand on his shoulder and hit him in the back of the neck with the other.

"_What a dick."_ thought Vanitas before passing out.

* * *

**Author's note:**

**First KH fanfic! Yay!**

**Well, just to clarify if there're any doubts:**

"bla bla bla"**= normal speech.**

"_bla bla bla"_**= thoughts.**

**As always, any reviews are greatly appreciated, especially if it concerns problems in the use of words or phrases, as I am not a native English speaker.**

**Thanks a lot for reading!**


	2. HEART

**Disclaimer: I don't own KH or the characters used for this fanfic.**

* * *

When Vanitas woke up, he felt like his head was spinning. It was the first time in ages that he had slept so soundly and he hadn't had any nightmare about the heartless. He wasn't sure though about what he had dreamt. It had something to do with a talking snowman. Maybe some movie he had watched with Sora? Either way, he felt much better.

As he looked around, he saw that he was in a bed, in a white room, surrounded by white curtains. It kinda of looked like a school infirmary. At the other side of the curtains, he saw a shadow that seemed to belong to a woman. It was sitting next to a desk, but then it looked towards him. He just hoped it didn't look like that… thing in his school that called itself a nurse. Fortunately, as she drew the curtains, he saw that she didn't. _"She is hot."_

"You're finally awake. I'm glad. You've been sleeping for almost two days." She said with a smile on her face. She was tall, had blue eyes and short… blue hair? _"Anyway, it fits her"_, thought Vanitas before completely realizing what she had said.

"Two days?! You're telling me I've slept for two fucking days?!" he screamed at her.

"Language, please." She said, throwing him a sharp look before returning to her previous smile. "Yes, young man. You have been asleep for two days. You shouldn't worry. It's common after the first time you summon your esper."

"Okay! I have some fucking questions to ask! First, where am I? Second, who are you? And third, what the hell is that esper thing I keep hearing about?!"

"As I said before, watch your language or, next time, I'll put you to sleep again." She said both a tone and a look so cold that Vanitas fell completely silent. "Now, call down while I try to explain you. My name is Aqua Harvey and you're currently in HEART's headquarters. In the nursery, more specifically. After the events of the other day, you were brought here by the team that handled the attack to the mall. Don't worry though; commander Zack already informed your family about it. As for what's an esper… you'll be told soon enough, so just be patient." Her expression had softened in that last bit and she was now again smiling warmly. "I'll go tell Ven you woke up. He'll take you to eat something before you speak with the commander." She said as she went to the door.

"Ven?"

"The kid that saved you. Ventus?"

"Oh." _"The blond little shit that knock me out."_

As he was left alone, he got up from the bed and went to the windows which were shut off. He peeped through them and got to see that he was in the Central District. Or, at least, that was what the number of cars told him. However, he heard the door of the room opening and turned his head to find Ventus standing there.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked. While he was smiling, he looked extremely uncomfortable.

"I'm fine." Vanitas answered. After that, the two of them were silent again. It was obvious that the blond was having trouble talking to him. "So… that Aqua chick said you were going to give me something to eat?"

"Oh! Yes!" Ventus exclaimed as if he had just remembered. "Please, follow me. I'll take you to the cafeteria."

They walked through the corridors on silence. Vanitas noticed that these looked like the ones in an office building, minus the crappy pictures in the walls. The blond was clearly looking for something to say, but Vanitas did not feel like helping him.

"I just realized I never asked your name." Ventus said.

"Vanitas." He said in an uninterested tone.

"I'm Ventus Geraldine." The blond said, smiling a bit more at ease. Vanitas felt too lazy to tell him he already knew that. "I wanted to apologize, Vanitas. For having to knock you out."

Oh, he was going to have fun with this one.

"Yeah, you were a real dick back there." Vanitas smirked and turned to see the blond's reaction. He had stayed in the same spot and was now ten feet away from him with a completely dumbfounded expression.

"Well, I'm sorry for having saved you back there." Ventus answered, now frowning and with a clearly angry tone.

"I didn't ask for your help."

"Yeah, cause you totally were doing great with that giant was about to crash you!"

"Hey! I was doing fine before you guys arrived and from what I remember it was MY esper thing what killed that heartless!"

Ventus just sighed and face palmed himself while he mumbled something that sounded similar to "you have no idea". He then just looked at him again before saying: "Just, follow me."

The cafeteria was just a not very big room with a couple of tables, chairs and a fridge. While Vanitas seated, Ventus went to the fridge and took out a couple of sandwiches. Only when he approached him, Vanitas realized how hungry he was after two days and immediately accepted them. After eating some more, he turned his attention back to Ventus who now seemed a bit calmer.

"Look, I'm sorry I reacted like that." He started to say to Vanitas. "You've every right to be upset over what happened and must have a lot of questions. I'm meant to take to the commander now, but my guess is probably best if I answer some of your doubts first. So… ask what you want."

Vanitas thought for a moment before starting asking. "Both you and Aqua said you were from 'HEART'. What's that about?"

"That's the name of the organization, 'Heartless Extermination and Researching Troops'; HEART for short. We were created by the government of the Free Cities to track down the heartless that pass the barrier. We also try to capture some and report every appearance of new kind of heartless."

"Doesn't the army already do that?"

"They have already to look after the barrier. We take care of those heartless which are strong enough to penetrate it and not be detected. As we capture them, we report the characteristics we learn about them in order to have the barrier perfected."

"…and what's up with the name? It sounds as if they looked for those words because they wanted to have such a corny name." When he said this, he saw that Ventus looked to other side and seemed to suppress a giggle. "Never mind that. Now, what's an esper?"

"It's… hard to tell. I guess you can call them spirits. They live in some sort of… other dimension, I guess, and make deals with humans to enter ours. Those who make contracts with them are called summoner."

Vanitas simply stared at the guy as if he had said that 2+2 equals 5. "Yeah… you expect me to believe something yourself can't tell me with a straight face?"

"Hey, it's not like that! It's just… we know still little about them. Apparently, they have been doing this for centuries, but only did the contracts with very few people. With the invasion of the heartless we have lost most of the information concerning them, but, at the same time, they seem to be doing contracts much more than before. Yet, the information they are willing to give us is quite little."

"Wait, you mean you talk to these things?"

"Of course." Ventus told him with a frown. "They are wiser beings than us. You must have felt it when yours appeared."

"I… don't remember. I don't even remember ever making some kind of contract to begin with."

Ventus seemed genuinely surprised by this and remained silent for a bit. "It's probable that your contract was made at some point where you couldn't remember; like in a dream or during your childhood."

"_Both of those will actually explain a lot"_, thought Vanitas. His dream had always been an issue and he remembered little to nothing from before he and Sora were adopted by Squall when he was ten. Speaking of which, it was best to get home quickly. After two days, the little brat will probably be sick worry about him.

"So…do you have more questions? If not, it's better that I take you to the commander." Ventus asked him.

"How old are you?" Vanitas said nonchalantly.

"Huh? Seventeen, why?" As Vanitas started laughing, Ventus just grew angry. "What?"

"Even though you talk like that, I knew I was older than you."

"Just, shut up." Ventus said while getting up.

* * *

Vanitas couldn't believe that THIS guy was the famous commander.

"Hello, Vani! How are you, kiddo?" Was what the black-haired man had said when he entered. Now, both Ventus and another blond guy (_"Seriously," _Vanitas thought _"how many blonds there are in this freaking organization?"_) were staring at him surprised, while Vanitas only kept his hand on his face after face-palming himself.

"You know each other?" Ventus asked.

"Vani's younger brother is good friends with my daughter. I know since he was a ten-year old that lived next door, but he still has the same face of back then." The man, called Zack, said as he laughed.

"So this is Leon's nephew." The other blond asked Zack in a whisper, although Vanitas clearly heard him. Zack simply nodded and the guy then turned his attention back to Vanitas smiling. "Well, I see that you already know our commander, Zack Fair, so I better introduce myself. I'm Cloud Strife, sub-commander of HEART. It's nice to meet you, Vanitas Leonhart. I know you must have a lot of questions so-…"

"Actually, this guy already answered most of my questions" Vanitas said, interrupting him, while pointing at Ventus. "So you can skip and just tell me what you wanted to talk with me."

Cloud and Ventus seemed dumbfounded by his bluntness, but Zack just kept smiling with his eyes focus on him. "I judged that Ventus told you the basics, so I guess we'll just tell you. The esper you have a contract with it's extremely powerful. We have no records about him and, taking into account the fact that you're no magic user and have no idea how to control it, I think you know where we're getting at."

"You can't let me walk freely, so I have to join, right?" Vanitas asked, showing complete boredom in his expression.

"It's not like that." Cloud said, regaining his composure. "We certainly can't let go just like that, but we don't have the right to force you to join. Even if your powers will be appreciated here, we'll merely give you lessons about how to control them. After that, we'll have to check on you every once in a while, but-…"

"I'll join." Vanitas said, almost as if he hadn't been listening to what Cloud was saying. Now, everyone in room, including Zack seemed surprised.

"It's not necessary for you to do that. You're still young and you'll be putting your life at risk." Cloud told him.

"I know that this guy is younger than me, so that crap clearly isn't an issue. I said I'll join. That should make everything simpler, doesn't it?"

Cloud and Zack looked at each other and seemed to have a conversation entirely in that stare. When they looked back at him, Zack was the one to speak. "May I ask you why you want to join?"

"I just want to fight heartless. Do you need another reason?"

If Zack had issues with that answer, he didn't voice them. He instead just laughed. "You're totally Squall's nephew. Then I guess I welcome you as a new member of HEART. We look forward to have you working with us." He said smiling.

"Great. Now, can I go home? Squall will bitch at me for worrying Sora these two days."

"Don't worry, I already talked with him. I'll take you there. It's Wednesday, so it's my turn to take Kairi to dinner." Zack said, while getting up. Both Cloud and Ventus began to leave the room. "Oh, wait, Ventus! You're coming too."

"Huh? Why?" Ventus asking as he turned back.

"He's your responsibility now, so you better introduce yourself to his family. After all, I'm putting him in your team.

Now Vanitas and Ventus looked at Zack before screaming. "WHAT?!"

"He's going into Team two with you, Seifer and Hayner. And don't complain again, because my decision is finally." Zack said as he exited the room.

Vanitas and Ventus simply started at each other. Vanitas was not happy about this.

* * *

After dropping then at Vanitas' house, Zack said good-bye and went next door, to his ex-wife house, to get Kairi. Vanitas never understood why he and Aerith had divorced five years ago. Even today, whenever they were together, they acted completely lovey-dovey. But it wasn't his business.

Just as he had predicted, as soon as he entered, Sora had jumped at him and knock him to the floor. The kid was currently over him, crying in his chest about how he had missed him. Vanitas just looked at Ventus to find him looking and apparently finding the situation both adorable and hilarious; though the look Vanitas shot him prevented him from openly laughing at it. After Sora calmed down, he finally took notice of Ventus and asked. "Who's that, big bro?"

"That's Ventus, my new coworker, I guess." Vanitas said while getting up.

"He works with Cid too?"

"No." Vanitas answered simply, without saying anything else.

Despite that, Sora now turned to Ventus in excitement. The blond apparently had a soft spot for children as he was quickly manipulated into going to Sora's room. In just a second, Sora had grabbed him by the hand and was dragging him upstairs.

After that happened, Vanitas finally noticed his uncle standing in the corridor in silence. His usual hard face seemed kind of soften today.

"So, you decided to join them." He asked Vanitas, who just nodded. "Follow me."

They went to the living room, where Squall started to look for something in the closet. Vanitas was quite shocked by this. He had expected his uncle to complain, to tell him he had made the wrong decision or even to argue how Sora will be worried about him going out to fight monsters. But it looked like he had expected this, which made Vanitas wonder how much did he actually know about it.

"You were a member of HEART before, right?"

"Yes." His uncle asked with his head still in the closet.

"And that's where you met Zack."

"Yes."

"And you knew about that esper thing I have a contract with."

This time, his uncle didn't answer. He remained in silence for a bit before getting out of the closet, carrying a wood box. "I had a suspicion. That's why I kept this. I thought you'll use it someday."

After saying this, he opened the box and took a sword out of it. It was all silver-colored, from the blade to the handle which looked like a winged lion. He hand it to Vanitas, who then took some steps back before swinging it. The sword was large, but it felt kind of light in his hands. He then looked at his uncle. "Thank you."

"Zack told me that if you accepted, he'll put you in the same team as Seifer, so ask him to train you to use it better."

"So, you're ever gonna tell me about your story there?"

"Another day, Vanitas."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Wow! What an exciting chapter! So much exposition!**

**Yeah, I promised that there will be a bit more action in the next. This one it's just boring.**

**Is it me or this is starting to sound like some crappy shounen manga? Oh, I forgot. Crappy shounen mangas are still much entertaining. Well, at least is not sounding like some crappy yaoi manga. Yet. I hope.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and review, please! Anything you have to say, I'd really like to hear it.**


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